SDSU's Franklin to return for junior year

San Diego State sophomore Jamaal Franklin, as assistant coach Tony Bland likes to say, has committed to the NBA for next season.

Nothing But Aztecs.

Franklin, the Mountain West Player of the Year, indicated he will return to Montezuma Mesa for his junior season, according to Coach Steve Fisher and others in the program.

Franklin never actually declared for early entry into the June 28 NBA Draft, as top underclassmen are allowed to do. But he and Fisher did request an evaluation from the NBA’s Undergraduate Advisory Committee, a select group of front-office personnel from NBA teams that provides feedback about a player’s draftability.

Fisher said he received that assessment earlier this week and met briefly with Franklin, but terms of the NBA’s pre-draft analysis preclude them from discussing it publicly. It is spring break at SDSU, and Franklin was unavailable for comment.

Fisher has said in the past he would advise underclassmen to leave college early if they’re projected as a lottery pick (top 14) and to stay as a second-rounder, where there is no guaranteed money. And if they’re projected in the back half of the first round, Fisher says, “you have a decision to make.”

The 6-foot-5 Franklin went from averaging 2.9 points and 1.9 rebounds as a freshman to 17.4 and 7.9, among the biggest single-season improvements in the nation. He said late in the season that he didn’t plan to enter the draft, then added cryptically, “You never know what might happen.”

But the chances for what might happen has changed radically for underclassmen, the notion of “testing the waters” reduced to little more than dipping in a pinky toe.

NCAA Prop. 2010-24, new this year, mandates an April 10 deadline – Tuesday – for underclassmen to withdraw their names from draft consideration and retain their collegiate eligibility.

The NBA, meanwhile, sets a draft entry deadline April 29, compiles an official list and releases it on May 3 or 4. It is only then that NBA team personnel are allowed to have direct contact with draft-eligible players, and under last year’s rules underclassmen would have about a week to arrange workouts and assess their draft prospects before withdrawing their name or going forward.

The intent of the NCAA rule is twofold: to encourage underclassmen to focus on school during the spring semester instead of the draft, and to give coaches an idea of scholarship availability before the spring signing period (which opens April 11). Under the old system, coaches couldn’t replace a departing underclassman because they didn’t know for sure they were leaving until early May.

The flip side: Underclassmen must make a decision on their NBA futures with scant information.

“It’s a bad rule, in my opinion,” Fisher said recently. “They screw the kids. Before, you had time to work out and do all the things where you could not only get feedback but you could go compete against some of these guys in different locations and get a feel yourself. Now it’s impossible to do any of that.”